Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary defines the biceps brachii as:
Muscle of the upper arm, having two heads.  Flexes arm and forearm and supinates hand.

Supinate means:
To turn the forearm or hand so that the palm faces upwards.

The bicep muscle consists of two heads (long head Red, short head Yellow) that flexes the arm and turns the hand upward.  The term head describes the belly of the muscle. This is the part that contracts.

In order to effectively isolate specific areas of the bicep during a workout,  you need to follow a few ground rules.   

The Standard Arm Curl

For most biceps curls it’s a good idea to start in a sitting position, this will minimize the amount of “cheating” you can do.  Sitting won’t work all the time (like using a curl bar or a straight bar) but for using dumbbells it may be a good idea.  TOP
 

Now that you’ve got two exercises down lets get to the good part of the routine, try the wide grip verses the close grip curl using a curl bar. 

Wide Grip Curl:

This works the short head and is assisted by the front of the shoulders (Anterior Deltoid).  The most common problem that people have is that they arch their backs and pull the weight up instead of curling it; the main reason is they are using too much weight.

Using the curl bar take hold of the wide grip V cuts.  Keep your back straight, wrists slightly bent and prepare your body for the added weight: knees bent, back straight (yes it’s that important), and look forward the same as the standard curl if you where standing.  As you bring the weight up bring your elbows forward this will give you a full contraction of the biceps, don’t forget to fully extend. Not extending will train your muscles wrong and may cause damage of the tendons.  TOP

Closed Grip Curl:

This works the long head and is assisted by the your middle head of your shoulder (Medial Deltoid).  Many people have there elbows far out to the side and there grip close together this causes them to raise there elbows.  While raising your elbows will help you do more weight it also decreases the isolation of your biceps as well as put a great deal of stress on your now weaken elbows. 

Using the curl bar take hold of the close grip V cuts.  Keep your elbows under your shoulders wrists slightly bent and prepare your body for the added weight: knees bent, back straight, look forward the same as the standard curl if standing.  Keep a slow 3 count doing this exercise do not “pump the weight”.

After these exercises you’re ready for something that isolates a little more. TOP

Preacher Curl

It’s called that because the position that you’re in is like praying at the altar as you lean over the pad.  This exercise is done using a barbell, curl bar, or for hard core the straight bar (try it you’ll understand, your ego goes out the window when your struggling with half the weight you usually use).  You sit in the seat, lean against the pad and put your arms over a rest that’s chest high.  Grab a hold of the weight and curl.  This exercise is made for burning biceps.

This is a great exercise it isolates the arms from just about the entire body.   As with anything the better it is the more problem people have with it: TOP

Problems:
What You May Be doing
to Sabotage Your Curls

1. You Sit too low.
   If you have the seat too low that allows leverage to pull the weight using the contact point of your arm and the pad as the fulcrum.  Position the seat so that your arms comfortably rest over the pad without forcing your shoulders up at the same time with minimum gap between your under arm and the pad.  (And by the way use a towel).  

2. You use too much weight.
   For those who use too much weight it can look less like a preacher curl and more like they’re in a rocking chair as they use there whole body to pull the weight up.  The heavier weight the more muscles you’ll try to use.  The idea is to isolate, so keep with the light stuff.

3. You don’t fully extend.
   The hardest part of the Preacher Curl is when your arm is almost straight.  Of course that’s where you get the most out of the workout don’t cheat yourself. 

4. You never stop using this exercise.
   Any exercise you do is only good for 2 to 3 months at best anything beyond that it goes from a benefit to slowly becoming a liability.  You start to do more and more weight while seeing less and less results but at the same time because your using more weight you increase your chances of injuries.  Change your exercise routine after about 2 to 3 months then after a while go back to the preacher curl.

5. You use too much weight.
   Did he say I use too much weight?  He did. In fact he said it twice.  More is not always better.

No muscle works alone although I talk a lot about isolation, you will have other muscles assisting that’s why you always keep the same pattern to your workouts.  Bigger muscle to the smaller ones, from general exercises that use a lot of muscles like standing straight bar curls or bench press to the more isolated ones like preacher curls.  That way when you’re doing your heavy sets your muscles that are assisting won’t be worn out from doing the isolated exercises like the preacher curls.  

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